The SitePoint Forums have moved.

You can now find them here.
This forum is now closed to new posts, but you can browse existing content.
You can find out more information about the move and how to open a new account (if necessary) here.
If you get stuck you can get support by emailing forums@sitepoint.com

If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

High bandwidth is beginning to be used on more and more computers, while on the other end low bandwidth will also rise. I think that in the near future there will be no 28.8 and 56.7kbps connections for computers, just for handheld devices.

Before I wotked on a slow 56kb modem which I could luckely make 1 kb/sec faster...

Only small disadvantage with cable here is that you share the bandthwidth with people in your street, sometimes at 7 PM download times get longer, but are still high... When you do it in the morning you can get those 400kb/sec speeds..

Here in Belgium a lot of people are joining internet cable access.. That's probably cause 'normal' access costs 1$/hour at night and 3$/hour at day. And with cable you just pay 37$/month and you can do 2 gb/week. So, that's enough if you just surf and download something once and a while. Waiting times for a connection is one month now...

In Belgium we can choose for DSL too, but that 70% more expensive and you got can only download/upload 500megs/month.

We have also a Sattelite operator, but you can only download (at a very high speed) and not upload.

As you mentioned, the problem with cable hookups is that they share the same space with other users...and therefore a loaded cable line bogged down with many different users at once can become as sluggish as a normal phone line...

I've said it before: @Home needs to start to get their act together and provide solid service...not lightning fast access once in a while...they can't have it going down for little 2-minute gaps throughout the day every few hours (happens sometimes)...what they need from now on is a guarentee...a limitation on how many users can use the same line...to ensure that the lines are not slowed down by excessive use...

The bandwidth is there. The high-speed access is there. I think what the original poster was asking is how come the download times are still long.

I personally don't know why he has such a problem with Sitepoint, it downloads in about 10 seconds on a 56K modem when I test. Much faster on a dedicated connection like DSL or ATM. Herein lies the problem. How is your provider connected to the Internet? Ask them. If they say T-1, T-3 or frame relay run, don't walk, to a new provider.

In my area there are approximately 10 different providers. Only one of them offers higher than a T-3 connection (approx. 45 mbps or 450,000 bytes a second). Now if they have 100 people online your alloted bandwidth drops to 4,500 or less than a 56K modem. This is regardless of how you connect to the ISP. Sure you'll get good burst speeds but it won't last. Not only that a lot of providers don't have direct access to the Internet backbone adding in another layer of bottlenecks there. One of the problems with @Home is that it goes through the AT&T network and then out to the Internet backbone instead of to the Backbone directly.

Look for a provider with a true digital connection (DS-3, OC3, OC48) to the Backbone.

Sorry for not posting sporadically throughout the thread but you wouldn't read about it my cable access went down. Finally someone was able to come out. Water in the cable!

So while the guy was here I mentioned the speed issue, he logs onto the @home portal and gets 350k download speed, I said I don't use your portal lets go to a regular site and see how long the site takes to open. He declined and said if I had an issue to contact base, which I have done on several previous occassions with no decent answer.
I did get an email today (to all subscribers) saying that we all get a $20 rebate for putting up with sub-standard performance. At least they sort of admit there is a problem.

The one overiding factor in all of the posts so far is 'Inconsistencies'. Most people surf the net from 7 to 11 at night, this is when the high bandwidth is throttled(cable anyway) so it is pointless to have cable unless you work(daytime) with the internet.

It is recommended that a (32k)home page will download in 9 secs based on a formula, the fact is it will probably take 15 to 20 seconds as a result of a combination of unseen variables.

At the end of the day it seems safe to assume that we should be forgetting designing for high bandwidth and concentrate on speeding the download times of our pages over 56k connections.

It also seems obvious to me that we in Australia have yet to get our act together regarding broadband. The company I use(optushome.com.au) is a spinoff from excite@home, the web sites are almost identical. So I guess they have no idea.

The download speed here's is always AT LEAST 4 times faster as my old 56kb modem.

And on what for backbones do your provider work? I saw somewhere in this topic that someone just could take 3.4kb with a normal modem. I got with a free one 6kb. But you should change some things in the registry though.
Christophe